Child Is Father to the Man
Encyclopedia
Child Is Father to the Man is the debut album by Blood, Sweat & Tears
, released in February of 1968
. It reached number 47 on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart.
, rock and roll
, psychedelia
and classical music, Child Is Father to the Man is one of bandleader Al Kooper
's most enduring works. The album introduced the idea of the big band
to rock and roll and paved the way for such groups as Chicago
. Kooper left the band after this album, changing the nature of the group.
Child Is Father to the Man peaked at #47 on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart. It failed to generate any Top 40 singles in the United States, although "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" and "I Can't Quit Her" found some play on progressive rock radio
.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 264 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
.
The title is a quotation from a similarly titled poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
, slightly misquoting a poem by William Wordsworth
called "My Heart Leaps Up
".
The album was re-released in the UK in 1973, entitled "The First Album" on Embassy Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records
(catalogue number EMB 31028) with an identical track listing and the same picture on the front of the sleeve. The rear had new sleeve notes written by English DJ, Noel Edmunds.
Additional musicians
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles...
, released in February of 1968
1968 in music
-Events:*January 4 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding.*January 6 – Gibson Guitar Corporation patents its Gibson Flying V electric guitar design....
. It reached number 47 on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart.
History
Widely regarded as a classic fusion of jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
and classical music, Child Is Father to the Man is one of bandleader Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
's most enduring works. The album introduced the idea of the big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
to rock and roll and paved the way for such groups as Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
. Kooper left the band after this album, changing the nature of the group.
Child Is Father to the Man peaked at #47 on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart. It failed to generate any Top 40 singles in the United States, although "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" and "I Can't Quit Her" found some play on progressive rock radio
Progressive rock (radio format)
Progressive rock is a radio station programming format that prospered in the late 1960s and 1970s, in which the disc jockeys are given wide latitude in what they may play, similar to the freeform format but with the proviso that some kind of rock music is almost always what is played...
.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 264 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
.
The title is a quotation from a similarly titled poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
, slightly misquoting a poem by William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
called "My Heart Leaps Up
My Heart Leaps Up
My Heart Leaps Up When I BeholdMy heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;So be it when I shall grow old,Or let me die!The Child is father of the Man;And I could wish my days to be...
".
The album was re-released in the UK in 1973, entitled "The First Album" on Embassy Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
(catalogue number EMB 31028) with an identical track listing and the same picture on the front of the sleeve. The rear had new sleeve notes written by English DJ, Noel Edmunds.
Reception
Writing for Allmusic, critic William Ruhlman wrote the album was "Al Kooper's finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures, taking in classical and jazz elements (including strings and horns), all without losing the pop essence that makes the hybrid work. This is one of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late '60s, a time when you could borrow styles from Greenwich Village contemporary folk to San Francisco acid rock and mix them into what seemed to have the potential to become a new American musical form... This is the sound of a group of virtuosos enjoying itself in the newly open possibilities of pop music. Maybe it couldn't have lasted; anyway, it didn't."Track listing
- "Overture" (Kooper) – 1:32
- "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" (Kooper) – 5:57
- "Morning Glory" (Larry BeckettLarry BeckettLarry Beckett is a poet and songwriter, best known for his collaborations with Tim Buckley in the late-1960s.-Early life:...
, Tim BuckleyTim BuckleyTimothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
) – 4:16 - "My Days Are Numbered" (Kooper) – 3:19
- "Without Her" (Harry NilssonHarry NilssonHarry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
) – 2:41 - "Just One Smile" (Randy NewmanRandy NewmanRandall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
) – 4:38 - "I Can't Quit Her" (Kooper, Irwin Levine) – 3:38
- "Meagan's Gypsy Eyes" (Steve KatzSteve Katz (musician)Steve Katz is a guitarist and record producer who is best known as a member of the rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears. Katz was an original member of the rock bands The Blues Project and American Flyer...
) – 3:24 - "Somethin' Goin' On" (Kooper) – 8:00
- "House in the Country" (Kooper) – 3:04
- "The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud" (Kooper) – 4:12
- "So Much Love/Underture" (Gerry GoffinGerry GoffinGerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
, Carole KingCarole KingCarole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
) – 4:47
1994 Master Sound edition bonus tracks (Columbia CK 64214)
- "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (6:10)
- "Refugee from Yuhupitz (Instrumental)" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (3:44)
- "I Can't Quit Her" [demo version - mono] (Kooper, Levine) – (3:00)
- "Morning Glory" [demo version - mono] (Beckett, Buckley) – (4:11)
- "Somethin' Going On" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (5:19)
- "The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (5:03)
2002 remastered edition bonus tracks
- "Refugee from Yuhupitz (Instrumental)" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (3:44)
- "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (6:10)
- "The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (5:03)
Personnel
Blood, Sweat & Tears- Randy BreckerRandy BreckerRandal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
– trumpet, flugelhorn - Bobby ColombyBobby ColombyBobby Colomby is an innovative jazz-rock fusion drummer, and an original member of the group Blood, Sweat & Tears...
– drums, percussion, vocals - Jim FielderJim FielderJim Fielder is an American bassist, best known for his work as an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears....
– bass guitar, fretless bass guitar - Dick HalliganDick HalliganRichard Halligan is an American musician and composer, best known as a founding member of the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears....
– trombone - Steve KatzSteve Katz (musician)Steve Katz is a guitarist and record producer who is best known as a member of the rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears. Katz was an original member of the rock bands The Blues Project and American Flyer...
– guitar, lute, vocals - Al KooperAl KooperAl Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
– organ, piano, ondiolineOndiolineThe Ondioline is an electronic keyboard instrument, invented in 1941 by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, and is a forerunner of today's synthesizers.The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds...
, vocals - Fred LipsiusFred LipsiusFred Lipsius was the original saxophonist and arranger for the jazz-rock band, Blood, Sweat and Tears, for which he played alto saxophone and piano...
– piano, alto saxophone - Jerry WeissJerry WeissJerry Weiss is an American trumpet/flugelhorn player, best known as a founding member of the jazz fusion band Blood, Sweat & Tears....
– trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals
Additional musicians
- Anahid AjemianAnahid AjemianAnahid Ajemian is an American violinist. Ajemian's career in contemporary music got its impetus from the desire to help young composers of her generation have their compositions performed. Additionally, she enjoyed performing the music of established contemporary performers...
– violin - Fred Catero – sound effects
- Harold Coletta – viola
- Paul Gershman – violin
- Al Gorgoni – organ, guitar, vocals
- Manny Green – violin
- Julie Held – violin
- Doug James – shaker
- Harry Katzman – violin
- Leo Kruczek – violin
- Harry Lookofsky – violin
- Charles McCracken – cello
- Melba MoormanMelba MooreBeatrice Melba Smith , known by her stage name, Melba Moore is an American disco, R&B singer and actress. She is the daughter of saxophonist Teddy Hill and R&B singer Bonnie Davis.-Early life:...
– choir, chorus - Gene Orloff – violin
- Valerie Simpson – choir, chorus
- Alan Schulman – cello
- John SimonJohn Simon (record producer)John Simon is an American musician, record producer, and composer. He is best known for his work with The Band as producer and musician on Music from Big Pink and The Band.-Biography:...
– organ, piano, conductor, cowbell - The Manny Vardi Strings
Production
- Producers: Bob Irwin, John Simon
- Engineer: Fred Catero
- Mixing: John Simon
- Mastering: Vic Anesini
- Arrangers: Fred Catero, Al Gorgoni, Fred Lipsius, Alan Schulman, John Simon
- Art direction: Howard Fritzson
- Photography: Bob Cato, Don Hunstein
- Packaging: Michael Cimicata
Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Pop Albums | 47 |
Later Samples
- "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know"
- "Maria" by Wu-Tang ClanWu-Tang ClanThe Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...
from the album Wu-Tang ForeverWu-Tang ForeverWu-Tang Forever is the second studio album of American hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released June 3, 1997 on Loud/RCA Records in the United States. Pressed as a double album, it was released after a long run of successful solo projects from various members of the group, and serves as the follow-up...
- "Maria" by Wu-Tang Clan